Chapter 5
The next morning I woke up all warm and toasty, cuddled into my comforter and so at peace. It’d been a while since I felt so…settled. Happy. Then I realized I didn’t recognize the room around me. The white wall didn’t look anything like my purple bedroom that I’d painted in high school. This room was cool and impersonal, like a professional had decorated it.
Then a hand slid over my hip and someone rocked against my ass, and I remembered. Delivering grocery store flowers to Cole Jackson. Having dinner with him. Dancing with him. Racing back to his bedroom to have sex. Falling asleep to the sight of him writing a song in the middle of our sexy times. Did we ever finish?
The last thing I remembered was laying in front of the fire with that throw blanket on me, but now I was bundled up in his huge, soft bed.
“Mmmm, this is nice,” he murmured behind me. “You’re so cuddly in the morning.”
I laughed softly. “Pretty sure that’s you,” I murmured back. “You’re the one pressing your morning wood up on my ass.”
“Can you blame me? I didn’t get off last night.”
I snorted. “And whose fault was that? I was all but begging you to do me, but nooooo. You had to eat me out first, and then you got distracted by your muse, and I never saw you again.”
“Sorry about that. Maybe I can make it up to you?” His hand moved north and cupped my breast as he pressed his hard cock against my ass.
“Hey, I’m not complaining. I got mine. You were the one missing out.”
“My mouth is nothing compared to my dick. You’re the one missing out, sugarplum.”
“Promises, promises,” I murmured with a smile.
“Fuck promises. Let’s make it a reality.” His hand slid down my torso between my legs. In seconds, I was wet and aching again.
I groaned. “I swear to god if you run off to write something down again, I will end you.”
He rolled me onto my back and gave me a smug smirk as he loomed over me. “The only thing I’m running away to do is grab a condom. They’re still in front of the fireplace. Be right back.”
I laughed as he vaulted off the bed, but he was back in seconds, fumbling with the package then rolling a condom down his impressive length, and all my laughter fell away.
Then I held my breath as he crawled across the bed with an intent expression on his face. Having all of him focused on me like that was heady and honestly kinda intimidating. I mean he was him, and I was just a girl who delivered groceries. What the hell was I doing?
He settled between my thighs before I could get my head straight. A frown wrinkled his forehead as he stared down at me. He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my temple. “You all right, baby?”
I nodded tightly despite my body language screaming my discomfort.
He cocked his head and frowned. “Somehow I don’t believe you. Are you not into it anymore? Want to take a shower or brush your teeth first? Eat something? What’s going on in that head of yours?”
My face heated with my blush, and I had to close my eyes. I couldn’t look at him, especially when he was being so sweet. “I’m into it. Into you. I’m just all—” I waved a hand over my face. “Inside my head about life and everything.”
“Well let’s see if we can find something to distract you from…everything.” He braced himself above me with a wicked smile, his legs pressing mine open even further.
He sat back on his heels between my thighs and bent forward to caress my sex, stroking me with a gentle touch. His thumb and fingertips were so teasing and sure. My sex fluttered around nothing, aching to have him inside me. I groaned in frustration. After a few long teasing moments, I wiggled my hips, and he grinned in triumph.
“You with me now, baby?”
I nodded furiously. “Yes, please. Get inside me now. Thank you very much.”
That smug smirk was so fucking sexy. I couldn’t look away from it as he braced one hand next to me and slowly pressed into me. His huge cock stretched inside me in a way I’d never felt before. He was so big and thick and…wow.
Oh .
He bent forward and took my lips in a crushing kiss. Distracting me from his very large dick pressing inside me. His tongue slid between my lips and twirled against my tongue, leading me in a thrust and parry that had my sex clutching convulsively around him.
Cole groaned and broke our kiss. “Christ, baby.” He rocked up and started driving his cock into me again and again. “You’re so tight. So wet. Fuck, yeah. Taking my dick so good.”
Oh god. He looked like that and talked dirty too? Cole was the entire package. I was so turned on. But all I could do was hold on and moan my way to my orgasm.
“Oh yeah, baby.” His voice was all gravelly and rough. “Wrap your legs around me. Just like that. Fuck. Yeah.”
Then his hand reached down and flicked my aching clit and hovered at the peak. After a few more flicks, I broke. My orgasm slammed through me, shaking my body with wave after wave of pleasure. I dimly heard Cole shout something above me, but I was too far gone to track it.
All I knew was a few seconds later, he collapsed onto me, pressing me into the feather soft mattress with his weight. I wrapped my arms around him and I nuzzled his bristly neck as I melted into the soft bed.
This was perfect. I didn’t want it to end.
But of course it had to. I had to get to work soon.
Cole pressed up, relieving me of his weight. “Sorry about that. You kinda took me out at the knees.” He leaned down and gave me a quick peck. “Give me a second to clean up, and I’ll be back to take care of you.”
I gave him a weak smile in return then unabashedly watched the rear view of him walking away. A few tattoos marked his back here and there, but it was his ass flexing as he walked away that I couldn’t take my eyes off of.
The second he was gone, I put my hands over my face to muffle my squeal.
What was I doing?
How was this my life?
It was crazy and probably a mistake. I was definitely going to get my heart broken at the end of this, but I couldn’t find it in myself to worry about that now.
You know what? Screw that. I was done living for other people and worrying about stuff way down the line. For the first time in forever, I was going to do what I wanted and screw the consequences.
“You ready to get in the shower?” Cole asked from the doorway to the bathroom.
I cocked my head. “If you give me a minute of privacy in there first. I really like you and all, but no way am I peeing in front of you.”
Cole’s laughter filled me with warmth as I passed him in the doorway.
Or maybe it was the way he looked at me when I walked by him wearing the throw from the bottom of the bed.
I might be throwing caution to the wind, but I was still me. And I definitely didn’t have his shameless confidence.
But maybe after a few weeks with him, I would.
* * *
It was almost ten by the time I untangled myself from Cole’s arms with promises to return tonight for dinner again and more.
The thought of more had me grinning like a fool as I walked into my parents’ house. When I didn’t see anyone despite the four cars out front, I relaxed and headed for the back hallway and my room.
But I wasn’t totally lucky.
“Seriously?” Aspyn scowled at me from the top of the stairs. “You go out all night and don’t call or message anyone. You just slink home at ten o’clock? Looking like that? What the hell, December?”
I looked down at my clothes. Granted, my shirt was rumpled, and I’d tied my hair up in a messy bun, but I didn’t think I looked that bad. “What’s wrong with how I look?”
“You’re wearing the same clothes you were wearing when you ran out last night. And they look like they spent the night on the floor of some asshole’s bedroom. You’re too old to be acting like this. You need to do better. Be a better role model for your nieces and nephews.”
I blinked a few times. That was a lot to unpack. “My nieces and nephews are eight and under. They don’t know I was out all night, and they sure as hell don’t know what I was wearing last night—unless you’re going to tell them. And even then, who cares? I’m an adult. I’m going to do whatever I want. That’s really the only good part of being an adult. What the hell is your problem?”
“My problem is that you’re throwing your life away. You don’t have a job. You’re living off Mom and Dad’s largess. Again . It’s embarrassing.”
“Right. So sorry to be such an embarrassment, but I have to get to my non-existent job now, so if you don’t mind…” I pushed past her to walk down the hall to my bedroom.
“I’m worried about you, December. If you keep going down this road, it’s not going to lead to anywhere good. You’re better than delivering groceries. You’re not living up to your potential.”
“And you are?” I whipped around and gestured wildly. “Did you go to college? Did you get a degree in a field that you absolutely hate? Did you work for years in a corporate job that was killing your soul every minute? No. You got your M-R-S and then quit your receptionist job. Did I tell you that you were wasting your potential? That you deserve more than being someone’s wife and popping out babies?”
Aspyn stared back at me and opened then closed her mouth.
I sighed in frustration. “I respected your decisions because it’s your life. Your life, your decisions. And you were right—you’re a great wife and a great mom. But you’re being a shit sister right now. So how about you let me make my decisions for me? For once?”
Tears filled her eyes. But she didn’t say anything. She couldn’t.
I shook my head and walked away because I was afraid of what I’d say if I stayed there another second.